Belgrade, 13 February 2026 – Journalists’ and media associations express concern over the continuation of a campaign against journalists from professional and critical media outlets, carried out through the compilation and publication of lists on the social media channels of the Centre for Social Stability, as well as the announcement of further episodes of the series “Dark Times” produced by this organisation.
The Centre for Social Stability published 45 names accompanied by the text: “In the next episodes of the documentary film Dark Times, you will watch…”, announcing that a 90-minute “special” about Veran Matić will be broadcast at the end.
As a reminder, two weeks ago, TV stations Prva, B92, Informer and Dokumentarna TV – which is not registered and does not have a licence to broadcast – aired a production by this centre entitled “Dark Times 2”, dedicated to Veran Matić, President of the Managing Board of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (AIEM) and a member of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists.
In the film, Matić is portrayed as an enemy of the state and a foreign mercenary – a framing condemned by numerous domestic and international organisations as unacceptable targeting that endangers his physical safety. The campaign continued through texts that reproduce parts of the film and were published on more than 30 pro-government portals.
This new wave of the campaign, marked by the publication of a list of names who will be featured in upcoming episodes, represents a new and even more brutal act of drawing targets and further inflames the heated and dangerous atmosphere of lynching against everyone who thinks differently from the ruling structures. The list of 45 includes individuals whose safety has already been jeopardised, as they have repeatedly been targets in still unresolved cases. Publicly publishing their names constitutes a new threat and a renewed endangerment of their safety.
The associations call on the highest state officials to urgently and unequivocally condemn the broadcasting of this content and to clearly state that any targeting of journalists, media and civil society organisations is unacceptable. This is their obligation. Any relativisation or tolerance of campaigns that, through falsehoods, insinuations and labelling, encourage pressure and endanger safety is unacceptable, as it seeks to silence the entire professional community and discourage any work in the public interest.
We also recall that journalists’ and media associations, members of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, have filed a criminal complaint for endangering the safety of Veran Matić. The complaint states that the broadcasting of an episode of the purported documentary series “Dark Times 2: The Creation of Propaganda”, produced by the Novi Sad-based association “Centre for Social Stability”, as well as a propaganda campaign conducted on social media and newly registered websites whose editor-in-chief and publisher are the same, has endangered Veran Matić’s safety.
At the same time, a request has been submitted to the court for a temporary ban on broadcasting the film, a lawsuit has been filed against the authors of the production, and complaints have been lodged with the Press Council against all print media outlets that published excerpts from the disputed video material. The use of all legally available remedies in response to human rights violations and the deliberate targeting of professional journalists will continue in the event that similar content is broadcast.
Association of Independent Electronic Media (AIEM)
Coalition for Media Freedom – Association of Media, Association of Online Media (AOM), Independent Journalists’ Society of Vojvodina (IJAV), Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS), Business Association of Local and Independent Media “Lokal Pres”, Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation, and the “Independence” Trade Union of Culture, Arts and Media
Journalists’ Association of Serbia (JAS)
